Sneaker Rat is the New Pizza Rat Except … Dead

A different alive rat, not the Sneaker Rat.
Photo: Gary Hershorn/Getty Images

Move over Pizza Rat, there’s a new celebrity rat in New York City and they’ve got a hard trick to beat: death. Gothamist’s Claire Lampen reported the story of Sneaker Rat, a still creature who seemed to be softly snoozing inside of a black Nike sneaker on a New York curb, it’s claws splayed out over the side of the sneaker. But Sneaker Rat was not sleeping. Sneaker Rat was dead, its little body devoid of life, its final resting place the mesh lining of a Roshe Run.

Moshe Bildner originally posted a photo of Sneaker Rat to Reddit. He saw the rat on a street curb in Brooklyn, which he explained to Gothamist via email.

“I saw something furry in the pile of garbage and looked down wondering if someone had thrown away something fancy; it was a rat in a shoe,” Bildner wrote. “The rat was already there and did not move the whole time I was there. The rat was for sure dead.”

Rest in peace, Sneaker Rat. The last moments of your small life were likely filled with the pungent smell of a dirty sneaker, and hopefully that’s what you wanted.